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Spring brings with it the
obligatory parental holidays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and their approach
signals the equally obligatory holiday-themed books for ages 4-8, featuring
familiar characters having appropriate adventures. Victoria Kann’s Pinkalicious: Mother’s Day Surprise
includes, in addition to the story, a poster, two picture frames, and stickers,
all with a Mother’s Day theme. The story itself is suitably heartwarming:
Pinkalicious wakes up early to make a special surprise for her mother,
preparing a yogurt parfait, picking flowers and then writing an acrostic poem
on the word “mommy.” But she cannot decide what the “y” should stand for, and
after struggling for a while, tired Pinkalicious decides to take a quick nap –
and oversleeps. When she does get up, she hears nothing going on in the house,
so she decides she can still surprise mommy. But Pinkalicious herself gets the
surprise – and the whole family helps complete the poem and make the day
special.

Mother’s Day is for
grandmas, too, and Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter has an adventure with his
grandmother that could be used as a delightful Mother’s Day story even though
it never mentions the holiday. Little Critter wants to go fishing, but his
mother and father have other things to do, and so does Grandpa. So Grandma
offers to go with him, and the two endure a series of mishaps: they dig for
worms but cannot find any (Grandma buys some), their fishing poles are
hopelessly tangled (Grandma buys new ones), and they cannot manage to catch
anything from their perch on the shore (Grandma rents a canoe). Then Little
Critter catches a fish so big that it pulls his new rod and reel out of his
hands and out into the lake (Grandma lets him use hers). And then a sudden cloudburst
leaves Little Critter and Grandma soaked and sodden – but of course everything
works out just fine after the two stop for lunch and order a “special fish
fillet sandwich with wiggly fries.” Just
Fishing with Grandma may not be a Mother’s Day story, but it is a nice
tribute to grandmothers of all sorts – for that day or any day.

There are aspects of
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in
James Dean’s Pete the Cat: Rock On, Mom
and Dad! Like the Pinkalicious book, this one includes extras: a poster,
cards and stickers. Also like that book, it features a central character who
sleeps through an alarm – that is how the story starts, with Pete oversleeping
and his parents helping him get ready for school on time anyway. This makes
Pete realize how much his mom and dad do for him all the time, and he thinks
about the fact that he never really thanks them – so he decides to make a
surprise for them. But what surprise?
All his ideas seem too ordinary: breakfast in bed, housecleaning, mowing the
lawn, and so on. Pete asks his big brother, Bob, for advice, and Bob tells him that
what matters is not what Pete does
but how he does it – it has to be
from his heart. So Pete writes his parents a song, and performs it for them,
and sure enough, it is “the best surprise ever!” Like Mayer’s Little Critter
book about Grandma, this one by Dean is not specifically a tie-in to either
parental holiday, much less both of them; but it stands as the sort of
appreciation of mother and father that may give young readers ideas of their
own about how to celebrate their parents on the designated days – and, one
hopes, others.

Rob Scotton’s Splat the Cat
deals with “father” issues in a book that is not actually created by Scotton
but that uses his creation aptly. Splat
the Cat: The Big Helper starts with a family meeting, at which Splat’s
father gives Splat his very own to-do list so he can help keep things humming
smoothly. Uh-oh: Splat has “a bad feeling about this.” So he ignores the list –
even when his best friend, Seymour the mouse, reminds him of it – and goes back
to playing a video game…until Splat’s mother says there will be no TV or video
games until the list is completed. So Splat does what the list says in quick,
slapdash fashion, making everything in his room even messier rather than
straightening it all out. Splat’s dad is predictably disappointed, but instead
of getting angry, he suggests that Splat try to make his chores fun. So Splat
does just that, imagining he is fishing in the ocean while he makes his bed;
thinking of his toys as pirate treasure and his toy box as a treasure chest in
which to put them; and pretending to be a jungle explorer while watering his
plant. Splat ends up having so much fun that, when his parents say he can go
back to his video game, he notices some other
chores that need doing, and decides to get them done while imagining a new
adventure. It is highly unlikely that Splat’s example will immediately lead
kids to do chores eagerly and with enthusiasm – but it can’t hurt to try. After
all, the book is amusingly enjoyable, and even if human children do not quite
share Splat’s newfound love of putting things away, maybe they could pretend
they do – perhaps for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or both.